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The biggest tech trade show in the U.S. is just a week away. And while Apple doesn’t officially take part in the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), its influence will be everywhere.

Take Ultrabooks, for example — the PC industry’s answer to the hyper-successful MacBook Air. Attempting to catch up, Apple’s rivals will be showcasing 30 to 50 new models at CES.

There’s also the iLounge pavilion, a section devoted to Apple-related products, which has grown huge this year. The iLounge has balooned from 4,000 square feet in 2008 to 85,000. We think there’ll be plenty to report on, so we’re blowing out CES 2012 in a big way. We’re sending six reporters to Las Vegas, bringing you all the news here on Cult of Mac.com and our sister blog, Cult of Android.com.

We expect a ton of new peripherals, apps and add-ons. There’s plenty more going on, from new smart TVs to smartphone-friendly cars. Here’s what to expect from the show:

Like its Black Friday shopping event held for those in the U.S. and other Western territories back in November, Apple is set to celebrate the Year of the Dragon with a shopping event on January 6 for customers in China/Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines.

The company promises the one-day sale will provide “amazing iPad, iPod, and Mac gifts for everyone.”

iOS devices receive a lot of criticism for their static app icons, which, although often pretty, are a little boring to look at. Other than the Newsstand icon, which changes depending on which publications you have installed within, iOS icons do nothing.

If you’ve got a jailbroken iPhone, however, you can make them a little more exciting. Motion is a nifty tweak available from within Cydia, which will animate the app icons on your home screen with all sorts of fancy effects.

Apple is planning a media event in New York this month, according to AllThingsD. While we shouldn’t expect to see the iPad 3 or a new Apple TV, AllThingsD’s usually-reliable sources have indicated the event will be “important,” but not “large-scale.”

Apple’s iCloud exec, Eddy Cue, is expected to show at the event in late Janurary. The last time Cue took the stage in New York was to help launch the iPad-only magazine by News Corp called The Daily.

Do you just like using the well-designed Apple keyboard with your work PC? If so, you know that there are inevitably some drawbacks to using Apple’s own QWERTYUIOP bar with Windows, mainly in the fact that many keys — such a print screen, volume control, eject and more — don’t work outside of OS X.

As is often the case, if you want to use your Apple keyboard as Steve intended within the Windows environment, there’s an app for that. It’s called Apple Keyboard Helper, and it’s a free download. Here’s what it does.

Apple has not been known to look kindly upon toys made in the likeness of the company’s iconic, recently deceased founder, Steve Jobs.

Any guesses, then, as to how long it’ll take for them to pile on DiD Corp for this eerily accurate action figure of Steve? The 30 centimeter statue is available now for preorder at just $99.99 and will supposedly ship out in February, but if Apple hasn’t sent a strongly worded letter (and, failing that, some pipe-wielding muscle) to DiD Corp by then, preventing the sale of the device, well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle.

More images below.

Here’s another “Act Now Before Apple’s Lawyers C&D!” deal for you: over at Sears, they are selling the iHdd 2 Slim External Hard Drive Enclosure for just $53.90. It’s self-powered, USB 2.0 compatible and has an attractive, IP and trademark-violating Apple logo glowing on the top! If you want one, better get moving before Apple’s lawyers come back from New Year’s break.

[via Macgasm]

Samsung has shamelessly ripped-off Apple‘s products every step of the way, but this has got to be a new — well, not low, but something. Not content to just rip-off Apple’s product designs, Samsung is now stealing the very actresses from Apple’s own commercials!

A bizarre official app from Apple called GameStore popped up in the App Store on New Year’s Eve, apparently by accident. The 99 cent app, which functionally does nothing, appears to be some sort of test app or prototype for a Newsstand-like games service that has yet to get off the ground.

PostSecret has been around since the earliest days of the Internet. The online collaborative art project allows people to anonymously submit secrets on postcards to share online. Multiple PostSecret books have been made from the submission, but while the site has flourished on the web, it appears it was too hot for the App Store, as PostSecret founder Frank Warren has said they will be pulling the PostScret app because of problems with online bullying.

Right now, if you want to get an iPhone with unlimited data, your only option is to sign up with Sprint… but given how slow Sprint’s 3G speeds are, unlimited data isn’t really saying much. Wouldn’t it be great if you could get unlimited data on a faster network? Say, Verizon’s?

Well, thanks to a little bit of CSR hacking, you can add unlimited data to any Verizon iPhone plan. Better act soon, though. The VZW is likely to shut down this exploit as soon as their engineers get back from holidays.

Known developer Steven Troughton-Smith has been able to run iOS App Store apps on the Apple TV fullscreen at the device’s full, 720p resolution. Troughton-Smith also worked on the Siri port that was demoed months ago and made available for jailbroken iOS devices last week.

With the help of another developer by the name of TheMudKip and Grant Paul’s MobileLaunchpad launcher, Troughton-Smith has been able to run iOS apps natively on the Apple TV without using AirPlay.

It’s a well-known fact that the late Steve Jobs was obsessed with simplicity and aesthetics, two traits that he drove into the core of Apple and will outlive him. What’s been less clear until his passing is how much those traits, his worldview, and the business that defines his legacy came from a lifelong affection for and interest in all things Japan.

Japanese tech journalist Hayashi Nobuyuki, who has covered Apple for years does a brilliant job chronicling Steve’s love of Japan in a piece for Nippon.com that I can’t recommend highly enough. A few of the tidbits can also be found in Walter Isaacson’s biography, but there are plenty of surprises to be had, as well. In particular, the stories of his vacations in Kyoto, the artisans and designers whose products he bought with regularity, and the time when he threatened to renounce the world and become a monk.

It’s a nice, pleasant read, perfect to enjoy with a cup of green tea and a headache. Happy New Year, everyone!

As 2011 comes to a close, it’s interesting to look back on Apple’s accomplishments throughout the year.

In this video, Cult Of Mac takes a look back at the top Apple events of 2011.

I have some good news for all you Verizon customers who were as upset as I was over the whole “convenience” fee fiasco. Verizon has decided to jump ship on the whole “convenience” fee idea after receiving immense backlash from customers as well as oodles of bad press (probably the bad press that did it). At one point it even looked as if the FCC was going to get involved, and for good reason: Verizon was simply trying to nickel and dime its customers. It’s not often we get to score one for the good guys, and this news has certainly put a smile on my face. Kudos to everyone who voiced their opinions, eventually forcing Verizon to release the following statement:

A photo of what is supposedly a next-generation iPad 3 display has surfaced on a Korean forum. The pic in question was tipped to MacRumors and has been making the rounds this afternoon.

The alleged iPad 3 display doesn’t tell us much of anything at all, other than the slight difference in cabling arrangement at the bottom of the panel.

Today’s tip is a simple one, but it fixes one of the most frustrating things that can happen when you’re browsing the web — especially on an iOS device. Have you ever hit your iPad’s display accidentally while browsing the web and closed a tab that included an article you were halfway through reading?

Thankfully, mobile Safari on the iPad has a handy feature that allows you to quickly access recently closed tabs.

Good news if you’re an Android user: an “official” Siri app is now available to download from the Android Market, claiming to be the “REAL Siri for Android.” Of course, it’s not official and it’s not real — it’s a shameless rip-off from a developer called “Viewide,” complete with Apple’s own icons.

Apple is being sued by its largest reseller in France. Profit by eBizcuss’s 16 locations dropped 30 percent during the third quarter due to Apple cutting the number of iPad 2s and MacBook Airs shipped, claims CEO Francois Prudent. The tipping point appeared when the tech giant opened its first French retail location in 2009, the lawsuit alleges.

Sometimes, in the race between Apple and Android we lose sight of the larger picture. Such is the case when tech media reported the Google-created mobile software leading iOS 46.9 percent versus 28.7 percent. In fact, a year-long review paints an entirely different scene – one that proves the old tale of the tortoise and the hare.

The popular jailbreak tweak vWallpaper has received a pretty significant update that finally brings live home screen wallpapers to iPhones running Apple’s latest iOS 5 software.

This rare photograph of Steve Jobs demonstrates the Apple co-founder’s infamous rebellious spirit as he “flips the bird” outside an IBM building in New York City. It was taken in 1983 when the Macintosh team visited the city for a meeting with Newsweek, and was posted to Google+ today by Andy Hertzfield, a member of the original Macintosh development team.

A recently discovered Apple patent reveals that the Cupertino company could be planning to introduction facial recognition technology to its Mac and iOS devices. The system would allow users to login to multi-user machines using only their face, much like the facial recognition feature recently introduced to Google’s Android operating system.

While some reports have claimed that Apple’s iPad 3 will be thicker than its current-generation tablet so that the company can make room for a stunning Retina display, it seems that may not be the case. Sources in Apple’s supply chain claim that the Cupertino company will instead utilize IGZO (indium gallium zinc oxide) displays from Sharp that will allow the device to retain its slender form factor, while sporting a new “full HD level” display.

It seems it’s all RIM can do these days just to hang on to the, well, rim. A new report by Business Insider reveals the same predictable result in last quarter’s round of the Smartphone Wars: Apple’s subscriber base is growing, with Android also growing, but at twice the speed — and mostly at the expense of Blackberry-maker Research In Motion.